Crafting Is A Niche Too

Recently I read Tobold’s post on “Mainstream and Niche Games“, and saw some Twitters from crafters wanting better crafting and it really started me thinking about crafting oriented games.

PvP really is a niche market. Any simple look at a few game’s server lists will show that there are more PvE players than PvP. I’m not really a PvP player but I always pick PvP servers, if given the choice. I view PvP from a sandbox point of view. If it’s available, I want it, because to me it’s another addition that adds more fun to a game. I mostly play Runes of Magic right now, and chose the international Smacht(PvP) server even though I hardly PvP. I want to have the option, even if I hardly participate.

There are some great PvP niche games, and many are free. Shaiya is perhaps my favorite of the PvP niche. Great graphics, smooth server uptime, and a fun massive PvP system pitting up to hundreds against hundreds. Although it is a very serious grind oriented system of leveling, it is still fun.

So why not a crafting oriented niche MMORPG? This has me feeling very left out as a crafter. I can only assume that a crafting niche would be even smaller than a PvP niche. So small in fact, that no one has found it economically viable to produce such an MMO.

However, just like Shaiya and it’s very PvP centric gameplay, it’s not the only thing to do in the game. Shaiya has loads of solo grinding, dungeons, party, and raid content. In fact the PvP zones are separated so one need not ever participate in PvP while playing Shaiya.

Why can’t we have something like Vanguard with its crafting, only the crafting is bulked up, more involved and the rest of the game takes second stage to it? Even if it were to be produced in the free to play market, which would make it a lot smaller than Vanguard?

I would love to try a game that had a craft system like Vanguard or EQ2 that was the center of the game. An MMORPG like that could be quite fun and still contain other elements like questing, leveling, and all that jazz.

Wow, imagine a game that took crafting to an extreme. With hundreds of more recipes and items to be made, enhanced, and sold on a beefed up auction house.

As I currently have limited knowledge on Vanguard and EQ2’s craft systems, I will start with a basic form of WoW’s or RoM’s.

I would first come up with more resources to be gathered.

Perhaps:

Wood

Food plants

Flowers

Ore

Stone

Minerals

Even more types, if I thought about it longer. Then I’d add a system of grades of each, so you could have:

Brass: Poor

Brass: Okay

Brass: Good

Brass: Better

Brass: Best

That grade system wood go for every kind of ore, herb, wood, etc…

I wouldn’t forget Skinning to get leathers from mobs either, along with types and grades for each type as well.

That covers a lot for gathering resources. For refining, I’d use a system like EQ2 or Vanguard that I only read a bit about. So during the crafting system enhancements of different types could be added based on a craft skill point system. Enhancements could be added with another large set of ingredients like:

Salts

Oils

gems

Don’t forget yet another set of grades for the enhancement ingredients.

Maybe even a system where currency(in-game gold) could play a part.

Different sets of tools that apply skill increases to help you get better quality resources when gathering too, and maybe even different quality workstations that helped increase your chances of better quality crafted items.

Of course we’d have to have an in-game housing system so we could build the houses. Maybe start with a base one-room house and you can “build” extensions, floors, additional rooms. Thousands of pieces of furniture, maybe you could find or earn better recipes to build the better tools to increase a % chance of getting better grades of resources and refining better items.

One Response to “Crafting Is A Niche Too”

Ever seen A Tale In The Desert or Wurm Online? They’re a sort of indie mmo’s which focus on crafting. You just build up houses, villages, tools and skills with grinding and minigames. ATITD even lacks combat completely.